Hayden senior Coy Letlow stretches for the end zone Friday as the Tigers wrapped up their home schedule. Letlow came up a yard short on the play but had little trouble plowing in on the next one. He ran for 115 yards and two scores in the first half as Hayden routed West Grand, 47-12.

Approaching the goal line after having rolled through the West Grand defense in Friday night's football game, he reached out and attempted to hand the ball to fellow senior Braylin Wertenberger, who ran stride for stride with Letlow.

Wertenberger, a part of the offensive line that blasted open gargantuan holes all night, was totally unprepared for the gift, and the ball tumbled to the field.

Letlow pounced on it after it had rolled 1 yard into the end zone, and Hayden notched another score.

It's hard to blame the generous running back - there were more than enough touchdowns to go around as the Tigers easily won their season finale football game. Letlow scored four times, and Hayden racked up 446 yards rushing en route to a 47-12 victory.

"I was trying to hand it off to my lineman. I was joking around on the sideline, telling them I'd get them a touchdown," Letlow said. "We couldn't have done it tonight without the line."

The win came on the heels of last week's playoff-denying loss at Meeker. Still, the Tigers appeared upbeat and ready to play from the opening kickoff. They dominated the early going on both sides of the ball.

Defensively, Hayden (5-4, 2-3) proved stout. West Grand didn't register an offensive gain of more than 1 yard until midway through the second quarter.

The Tigers only logged one sack, but they constantly were harassing any Mustang unlucky enough to touch the ball in the backfield.

"It was just playing aggressive and keeping our minds in the game," senior Logan Foster said about the defensive intensity.

Hayden was equally powerful on the other side of the ball.

Senior Mitchel Doolin fumbled the ball on the 20-yard line early in the first quarter, but he managed to scoop it up and follow a brigade of blockers in for the Tigers' first touchdown.

"That was kind of wild," Doolin said, laughing after the game. "The ball was on the ground. I grabbed it and got a couple good blocks.

"All of our backs ran the ball really hard, and they weren't wrapping up. We were able to run right over the top of them."

The Tigers wouldn't need as much luck later in the half. Foster plowed through the middle of the defense and ran 65 yards for a touchdown before Letlow scored his first from 32 yards out.

After Letlow added another in the second quarter, diving in from 1 yard, the game was in hand and junior varsity players began to dot the field.

"Offensively, we were able to fire out. Our line did a good job getting on their blocks, and all of our backs ran hard," Hayden coach Shawn Baumgartner said. "Our goal coming in was to control the line of scrimmage, and we were able to do that on both sides of the ball.

"As a team, the way we came back was great. We could have hung our head (after being eliminated from the playoffs) and said it was over, but we didn't, and I'm proud with the way we responded."